“An intelligent, refined, and chivalrous society”

       That was what the promotional brochure said about Houston’s River Oaks, Houston's new residential area. The first house built there in 1925, at 3376 Inwood Drive, became the home of William Lockhart. Clayton, who, with his brother-in-law, Monroe Dunaway Anderson (think M.D. Anderson) founded the largest cotton-trading company in the world.

        Eventually River Oaks would be home to the legendry oil tycoon, Jim “Silver Dollar” West, business wizard Hugh Roy Cullen, and other founders of Houston fortunes. These were the big rich, but there were also the famous: Hollywood star Gene Tierney, astronaut Alan Shepherd, heart surgeon Denton Cooley, political headliners like John Connally and Oveta Culp Hobby, and a roster of other celebrated names.

       And last, but not least, were the Hoggs. By the 1920s, their oil fields were making them independently wealthy.

      

       They, too, would make River Oaks their home.